... a new nation, conceived in liberty

and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

ALL MEN.

That should have included Brandon Mayfield, but the FBI lied about his fingerprint. For those lies, and more, it cost us $2 milion.

That should have included Steve Hatfield, but Attorney General Ashcroft called him a person of interest. For those words and more, it cost us $4.6 million.

That should have included John Walker Lindh, but we denied his repeated requests for a lawyer, and we stripped him, blindfolded him, bound him, and held him  in a shipping container.  For that treatment he got 20 years, but it cost us our honesty

That should have included Jose Padila and Yaser Esam Hamdi.  Hell, it should have included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

we hold these truths to be self-evident: That all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. . .

Words, only words . . .
Today we live in the time of an administration which claims extreme authority in the supposed cause of protecting this nation from harm.  But if we undercut the basic freedoms upon which this nation is founded, if we do not preserve the rights and freedom for everybody, what then are we protecting beyond the power and authority of those who exercise it, especially when they oppose all attempts to reign them in, to hold them accountable, to be subject to oversight?

We are not YET in the situation of those in a central European nation at the end of the first third of the last century, whose leadership also claimed extraordinary power, which first gained plenary power after the Reichstag fire and which in the Enabling Act of 1933 gained the ability to issue laws and decrees without further action of the legislative, and whose words, in English said in Article 2:

Laws enacted by the government of the Reich may deviate from the constitution as long as they do not affect the institutions of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The rights of the President remain undisturbed.

But we have had our Military Commissions Act.  We have had various versions of our USA Patriot Act.  We have had multiple attempts at a rewrite of FISA.  And as the Reichstag acquiesced in Hitler's demands, our Congress has not completely rejected the demands of Bush, Cheney, Ashcroft, Gonzales, and Chertoff.    It has already cost the taxpayers millions in compensation, because so far we have had a court system willing to reign in the executive authority, at least to some degree.

But we need to remember words from that period, a version of which are written on the wall of an institution for which we also paid, the United States Memorial Holocaust Museum.  That version of the poem by Pastor Martin Niemoller reads as follows:

First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Socialist.
Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Trade Unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out -
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak for me.

And I cannot help but remember words upon which we insisted in this new nation, these words:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

and also these words:

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

and also these:

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

and most assuredly these as well:

The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

If these words matter, there can be no searches authorized by FBI supervisors - at a minimum they must swear to an appropriate court and provide the specificity required by the Fourth Amendment, and should their oaths or affirmations be false they should be subject to criminal penalties for perjury and civil penalties for the damage to the lives and rights of those whose persons and property have been invaded and or seized.

If these words matter, there should be no secret trials, no secret evidence, no military commissions in place of juries.

And if these words matter, whether before the trial in attempts to gain information or after a "trial" in which the person may or may not have had the rights to which s/he was entitled, there surely could be no waterboarding, nor being bound naked in a shipping container, nor being subject to sensory deprivation as was Jose Padila.  

In the document in which we asserted our independence from Britain, whose adoption is the occasion for our celebrations today, we read a list of complaints against King and Parliament, some of which we surely should remember:

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. . . .

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil power. . . .

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury; . . .

Birthdays are times to take account, to reflect upon where we are, how we got here, and what remains ahead of us.  On a personal level, each of the past few May 23rds I have chosen to do so in the form of a reflective diary, shared with this community.  

But my individual life is of little import when measured against the life - and health - of the nation which has at least so far allowed me to develop with a fair amount of freedom in how I have chosen to live my life.  While I do not have biological children, I share the responsibility of the future for many children because I teach.  And we all share the responsibility for the nation we will leave future generations.  We have no right to encumber them with the crushing debt accumulated during this administration because we and that administration have been unwilling to pay for the benefits we have received, or if we have not ourselves received them, which our elected representatives have authorized in our name, be they tax cuts for the wealthy or the uncontrolled expenditures of no-bid contracts to favored corporations.  Most of all, if our government insists upon the use of military force overseas, insofar as is possible we should be paying as we go.  Perhaps were our taxes increased or our services slashed to pay the costs of the Iraqi debacle the people would rise up in sufficient anger to end it before it further damages our nation and the world.

I began with Lincoln, deriving my title from his words in 1863.  His final, extended, sentence is something I think we should ponder:

It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us--that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion--that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.

shall not have died in vain:  their lives should not have been spent without purpose

a new birth of freedom: not instead to see us and our elected representatives  in the supposed name of security acquiesce in the diminution of those freedoms upon which this nation has been based

and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth:  how can we celebrate such government when our executive claims plenary powers, when we hear that a President in the time of a war against terror which by definition has no defined ending, has no limits on his power as commander in chief;  how is this government of the people, by the people, for the people?

Lincoln looked back 87 years when he spoke those words.  Today we look back another 145, for a total of 232 years.   As we examine where we are, and how we have gotten here, can we say with any confidence that the words we so treasure, from 1776, and 1787, and 1789 when the Bill of Rights was written, will still have meaning in another 232, or even another 87?  Can we say for certain that they will in another 87 months, or even 87 days?

I look back at our founding documents, and for all the flaws of the men who wrote and signed them, wonder if we would have their courage, if we would be willing to risk on their behalf?  Many had comfortable lives, even under the tyranny they perceived coming from London.  And yet they insisted on more, on basic rights. Perhaps their vision was not as inclusive as we would make it today, because they did not included those who lived here when the Europeans arrived, nor did they address the conflict between slavery and liberty (although the Constitution never uses the word slavery) and they certainly ignored the words of Abigail Adams to her husband to "remember the ladies."  Yet still, they offered a vision that was expansive, that saw the future in terms of the increase of liberty.

If I am going to teach these documents and these men, then I must teach them completely.   And if I want my students to live up to the aspirations of these documents, then I, like those men 232 years ago, must be willing to risk all.

So let me end as did they, and commit myself as they did, at the end of the document to which they appended their signatures.  And as I do so, I ask that you consider what they did, and perhaps act similarly, in word and in deed.

And in advance, I wish you as I always do:

Peace.

And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.

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